Brie Skolaski helps build houses with Habitat for Humanity in Milwaukee's central city. She just finished working on four houses in the 1600 block of N. 33rd St.

But come February, she and others from the area will head to Usulután, El Salvador, and the small township of Santiago de Maria, where they will put their building skills and goodwill to work constructing houses.

Last February, Skolaski, who works at a software company, went to the Central American country instead of taking a vacation.

"It was an incredibly amazing experience and totally life-changing," she says.

"There's a sense of hope, community and passion there unlike anything I've ever seen. People live in dire conditions — no running water and shacks made of metal and scraps — but they were happy and excited about our being there."

While Habitat for Humanity is well-known for building in low-income Milwaukee neighborhoods and other U.S. cities, its efforts to house the poor extend around the world, says Brian Sonderman, executive director of Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity.

As part of that effort, the Milwaukee Habitat has contributed $2 million to the worldwide building effort.

"We're a global organization with 1,500 affiliates in the U.S. and Habitat affiliates in 80 countries," he says.

Through its international global villages trips, volunteers give their time and hands-on construction help to build houses in faraway places.

The global villages building project is sponsored through Habitat's tithing program, in which local chapters donate 10% of all unrestricted funding they receive.

Milwaukee, which has been participating since 1984, is only the ninth U.S. affiliate to reach the $2 million tithing mark, Sonderman says.

"The tithe is part of our mission that we're extremely proud of," Sonderman says.

Because of the difference in construction costs in developing countries, for every family that Habitat serves locally, the tithe can serve at least three families, he says.

While locally Habitat has served 784 families through homeownership and home repairs, internationally Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity has helped build houses for 1,221 families, primarily in El Salvador and Kyrgyzstan, according to development director Melissa Songco.

The first team of Milwaukee volunteers went to Nicaragua and Mexico in 1990. Volunteers who go to other countries to build, like Skolaski, pay their own way and expenses.

The tithing money comes from non-governmental funds that are unrestricted, such as money from foundations and corporations, Sonderman says.

Some foundations want the money to be used just locally, and Habitat honors that, he says.

"But the vast majority very much support this global presence and don't restrict donations," he says.

In anticipation of making the $2 million mark, Milwaukee Habitat has been working with churches and others in the community on a "See the Change" challenge to collect 2 million pennies.

The money will be donated directly to Milwaukee Habitat's primary tithe partners in El Salvador and Kyrgyzstan, Songco says.

Jill Paradowski, who chairs the outreach committee at Trinity Episcopal Church in Wauwatosa, said the church began collecting pennies in July and made it a contest between boys and men and women and girls.

"The whole parish took part, and kids would come to church with bags of pennies," she says. "It was great fun."

The church collected $1,175 in pennies. But, she says, the church will bring a check instead of the change.

If you go

On Monday, World Habitat Day, Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity will celebrate its reaching the $2 million tithe mark at Habitat ReStore East, 420 S. 1st St., from 5 to 7 p.m. The public is invited to bring its spare change, and a ceremonial "pouring of the pennies" will be held at the end of the evening.

About Georgia Pabst

Georgia Pabst is a general assignment reporter whose areas of coverage include Milwaukee County government, the Latino community, non-profits and neighborhoods.